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Zoological Science
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Abstract
A new species of small water strider (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Veliidae), Microvelia pilosa sp. nov., is described from Aichi Prefecture, Honshu, Japan. It belongs to the subgenus Picaultia Distant, 1913 within the genus Microvelia Westwood, 1834, and is similar to Microvelia japonica Esaki and Miyamoto, 1955 and Microvelia douglasi douglasi Scott, 1874 . The new species can be distinguished from these two taxa by its blackish-brown body, small punctures on the pronotum, and arcuate right paramere that is slender only in the distal part. Our molecular phylogenetic analysis using the mitochondrial COI gene revealed that M. pilosa sp. nov. is genetically separated from some of the other Japanese Microvelia and is most closely related to M. japonica.
We are grateful to Toshimasa Mitamura (Fukushima Agricultural Technology Centre, Hama-dori Research Centre), Kei Hirasawa (Aquamarine Inawashiro Kingfishers Aquarium), Reiya Watanabe (IDEA Consultants Inc.), Chiyo Moriyama (Gifu University), and Takuto Kumagae (Tokyo Metropolitan University) for their help with collecting specimens and providing specimens used for the molecular phylogenetic analysis. We also thank Koki Yano (Shinshu University) and Tomoya Suzuki (Kyoto University) for technical advice about DNA analysis.
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